Art has long proven to be one of the best and most popular options when it comes to alternative investments. But it’s a murky world that lacks transparency. For any investor looking to add to or start a collection, it is important to make sure that the piece being purchased doesn’t have any legal red flags surrounding it. That’s where the Art Loss Register steps in.
The Art Loss Register (ALR) has the world’s largest database of stolen and missing art, and they are attempting to bring transparency to one of the least regulated markets on the planet. The organization provides certificates for pieces to assure purchasers that what they are buying isn’t stolen or looted. In a world where debates about repatriation of colonial-era objects and antiquities looted from warzones is hot water cooler fodder, the need for an organization of the ALR’s kind needs little explanation.
The ALR works alongside law enforcement, insurers, auction houses, dealers, and museums. While the organization, made up of just 15 individuals, doesn’t have any legislative power, it possesses what it claims is the world’s largest database of missing art. Currently, there are some 700,000 items in its cache that span the gamut from Greek statues and impressionist paintings to vintage earrings. Through the database, thefts or pieces that have gone missing can be logged, and before a piece is sold it can be checked against the cache.
Checking against the giant database has already proven useful in a variety of cases. At The European Fine Art Fair, a still life by Balthasar van der Ast that had gone missing in 1945 from Suermondt Ludwig Museum in Aachen. Other found pieces include a sculptural fragment that went missing from the National Museum of Kabul, Roman marble torsos looted during the Lebanese civil war, and a group of paintings that were found in Denmark 16 years after being stolen.
The ALR doesn’t work for free. Museums or individuals pay around $85 to check a piece against the database. The organization runs about 400,000 queries every year. When the ALR manages to recover a piece, they charge a relatively substantial fee of about 20 percent of the sale value.
For art collectors looking to add to their collection and not wanting to lose their serious investment later on, the ALR has become a crucial organization. There are more and more questions surrounding the art world with ethical dilemmas about colonial-era objects needing to be returned to their country of origin to art that went from a warzone all needing to be on investors mind when they pull out their checkbooks. In a world known for its lack of transparency the ALR can be the investor’s best friend.
